News from our partners: ‘Meremaids’ voted runner-up in national contest

News from our partners

A summertime community art festival featuring a trail of brightly-decorated mermaid figures around Ellesmere town centre has been voted runner-up in a national competition.

The ‘Meremaids’ initiative, led by Sally Poynton, was among six projects shortlisted for the finals of an awards contest organised by the Libraries Connected charity to celebrate the achievements of people working in libraries across Britain.

Sally Poynton with her own Swanmaid creation.

Sally, who works as an assistant at Ellesmere Library – part of the Our Space community hub – said she was delighted that the judges had recognised the huge local effort to attract more visitors into the town, boost trade and encourage more people to get involved in library activities.

Sally said:-

“Although we didn’t win, it was a great achievement to make it to the finals.  The idea caught the imagination of so many people, and everyone involved should feel very proud.  It was a community effort by the whole town. We were up against some outstanding projects in other parts of the country.”

The winner in the competition’s culture and creativity category was a Cinema in the Library development at Pontrefact, West Yorkshire.

The Ellesmere project involved a three-month display of more than 90 individually-designed mermaid figures in shops, pubs and other town centre premises.  Locals and visitors were invited to compete in a ‘spot the meremaid’ competition, and  the festival also included visits by professional mermaid performer Jeni Hall from Gobowen who took part in children’s events promoting the library’s summer reading challenge.

The Mereswan

The project was supported by Ellesmere Library manager Sheila Williams and nominated for an award by Shropshire Libraries/ team leader Heather Rodenhurst.

For more information, please contact John Shone on 01691 624514.